A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

This week, it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Outdoors and indoors.

Two more of the 100 Species Challenge, and getting the guest room together--which is what I am doing when I am not teaching, preparing to teach, or doing the regular chores that keep the household from falling apart!

First, we go outside for two more of the 100 Species Challenge!

33. Bouteloua dactyloides: Buffalo grass.

Here mixed with weeds and Blue Gramma grass. (counted last September).

34. Atriplex canescens: Four wing salt-bush. Here, it is a brighter spring green than I have seen in June for a very long time. This is likely due to the very strange monsoon-like afternoon rains we have been getting for the past two weeks.




Now, we go back inside to check on the progress of the Library/Guest Bedroom.



Shayna is excited to “help” as I unpack books and order them on the new bookshelves. These books have been packed for three years, and I feel like I am greeting old, half-forgotten friends with every box.






I brought my rocker in from our bedroom, where it was looking crowded into a corner. We got an inexpensive mattress and box springs for the bed, and the bedcovers were one of those sets on clearance at a Big Box store. The set came with the sheets, shams, and decorative pillows, as well as the bedspread. A good deal indeed, I picked it up last January.



I teach this afternoon and evening, a full three classes, so I must get to preparations for a long day on hard floors! (I did get the sandals . . . and that’s another blog entry).


My small “t”, “c” and “h” are not working on blogger, although they work fine in Word. So I am writing in Word and using copy-paste. That’s enough of that for now!

Oh, My Aching Feet! IRD Reprise

I wasn't going to teach reading this summer.



Last year gave me much "rich experience" and it also meant that I had no summer weekends, and aching feet. My arthritis--part of a larger medical condition--means that standing for hours on the concrete-based floors of classrooms is murder on my feet. After two full days of teaching last summer, I'd come home limping and almost lame. I'd lose whole days off sitting with my feet up. Teaching requires lots of standing, bending, twisting, and walking. Only in the Jewish context is it done sitting at a table with students.

I loved the teaching, but I hated the pain. And the weekends away from my family. And the lost Sabbaths.



So, when the company, the Institute of Reading Development, sent out the re-application paperwork, I studiously ignored it. I filed it in the recycle bin and promptly emptied it.

Not this summer. I was planning a summer of working on my dissertation proposal and getting the guest room/library (formerly the Chem Geek Princess's room) organized. THAT would be enough.



Sigh. I am an accomodating midwesterner transplanted to manana land. It's very difficult to say "no" and stick to it when they e-mail me saying how much they want me. Especially when I believe in the program and know it works for students. And extra-especially when I get such a charge out spending time with kids of all ages and books. It's addictive.



I tried. I e-mailed back to my last summer's teaching supervisor, saying that I liked the work, but that I was unwilling to teach on Saturdays. She e-mailed back saying that, unfortunately, they had already split classes for the first five weeks on Saturday afternoon, BUT that they would work very hard to accomodate my need during the second five weeks.



The next gambit: I would like to teach, but it would need to be part time. By return e-mail, IRD said they needed a half-time teacher in New Mexico, as they had already hired a full-time person.



I caved, glutton for feet-punishment that I am.

It is almost three quarter's time this first term, and I have almost every level of course IRD offers. That's exciting.

I got out the wool socks to cushion my feet. (I know it's summer, but they help). I went through re-training--which was a much more pleasant experience than the marathon first training.



I started Saturday afternoon. I have had full classes with great kids, ranging from the sweet eagerness of pre-K to mid-school age, ones who are shy or social, resistant and/or thoughtful. And now that I understand the IRD scope and sequence, I find that I can focus on them and their issues in ways I could not last year. I feel the flow of the class sequence, and I can enjoy the process with the students, quickly able to ascertain which ones need to move (two so far), which ones need a firm hand, and which ones need to be encouraged to talk.



I am beginning to feel like an experienced IRD teacher.



But, Oh! My aching feet. And this year, Oh! My aching knees.
(RA has the nasty habit of progressing).

The lifting of heavy boxes, the crouching by a table to encourage a little one to speak up, the twisting between desks to listen to a second-grader lisp through an Easy Reader passage: these all take their toll.

Teaching is for young people.

And those who wear Z-Coils.

I am about to be among the latter. The volunteer choir coordinator at our synagogue (and her husband) both swear by them. They say that they can go through a whole day standing and still go dancing that night.



I have been thinking about Z-Coils for a while anyway.

But I have resisted. I don't want to wear "old lady shoes" when I am not yet (quite) fifty.

Never mind that I have already outlived the lifespan of a pioneer woman, and have yet to develop wrinkles! (I keep my fair Eastern European complexion out of the high-elevation New Mexico sun. I have always envied the brown beauty of the easy-tanning complexions. But, alas, I did not choose my ancestors).



But Z-Coils have gone from one or two utilitarian styles, to a range of colors and styles--from sandals, to hiking boots, to walking shoes! I went on line this morning, and saw several possibilities.



So, I'm soon off to Z-Coil. I've got to get me some of these . . .



My grandma never wore shoes like this.
But then, sensible at fifty, she never hiked Sedillo Canyon with two dogs in tow, either!

Richness of Experience?

Well, well, well.

We are to have a new SCOTUS Justice, Sonia Sotomayor from The United States Court of Appeals, District 2.

In many ways, she appears to be a very good pick.

She has many years on the bench, and prior to that, she was a prosecutor.

She has a good academic record, and although she is not known for legal brilliance, she is the child of immigrants and has the rise from the bottom story that is inspiring to all.

As a citizen, viewing this process from afar, my hope is always for a Supreme Court Justice who reveres the Constitution of the United States, and understands that she (or he) is not a maker of laws, but an arbiter of the Rule of Law, interpreting to us how our legislation relates to the Constitution. And I wish for someone humble as well as smart, someone who recognizes that justice is blind, and is no respecter of persons.

This last is why this Sotomayor quote is troubling:

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life . . ."

(Sonia Sotomayor, at the 2001 Judge Mario B. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture, University of California, Berkeley. Quoted in The New York Times, May 14, 2009).

Judge Sotomayor said this in the context of a remark attributed to Sandra Day O'Connor that "a wise old man and a wise old woman will reach the same conclusions when judging cases."

In my reading of her speech (the whole of which can be found here), I understand that Sotomayor is talking about the idea that women and certain minorities bring their experience to their work, and in this case the work is judging.

But this is true of every individual. All of us who have lived life for a while have rich experience and the potential for wisdom. Those old white men Sotomayor disparages also have the richness of their experiences, as do the five Catholics, two Jews, and one Protestant that Sotomayor will serve with on SCOTUS.

I am NOT concerned that diverse judges will bring their life experience to their work as arbiters of the Constitution. I AM concerned that they should remember that Lady Justice is blind; she is no respector of persons, and that each person's case deserves equal respect under the law.

I am NOT concerned that our SCOTUS justices are individuals from diverse rich backgrounds. I AM concerned that we may have a justice who believes that her background is richer and more "diverse*" than that of the others. Her statement makes me think that she believes that some backgrounds are more equal than others. And if that is her understanding, then how can Sotomayor possibly judge all cases equally under the Supreme Law of the Land, as her oath will require her to do?

*This is a poor, but common use of the word 'diverse.' Diversity means a range of differences, and so any one thing by itself cannot be 'diverse.' That this word is used this way by the progressives suggests an agenda whereby some people are indeed 'more equal' than others.

Certainly, Sotomayor has earned the right to be proud of her life's course and her accomplishments, attained through the surmounting of barriers that others on the Court may not have experienced. But those others may well have surmounted barriers of their own; some barriers of which she may know nothing, and some of which she may share with them.

Each individual has a unique background and set of life-circumstances, unique capabilities and limitations. Our very individuality makes it impossible to fairly judge who has done better or worse, who has had more difficulty or more ease in the attainments of life that can be observed. And this is why, in our Western culture, we have the concept of the Rule of Law: that the law should apply equally to the homeborn and the stranger; that you shall not favor the poor over the rich in judgment. Because we cannot see into the lives and the hearts of individuals, this is the only way to render justice--we make everyone equally accountable under the law.

I am not sure that Judge Sotomayor is willing and able to do that, given her remark that her personal life experiences make her better suited to make judgements than the life experience of others. As time goes on, I hope that we will learn more about her decisions from the bench, thus gaining a richer context for what she has said. In the meantime, we have reason to be concerned.

One Hundred Species is Back!

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Although the weather lately is acting like the Monsoon a month early,

the ubiquitous "they" say that there is

not enough moisture in the atmosphere for it.

Instead, we have an "entrenched depression pattern." Whatever "it" is, we have been getting rain nearly every day for the past week, and we are expected to get seven more days of it.

This is unusual, but we'll take it!
With the flowers blooming and the plants loving it, it's time again for the One Hundred Species Challenge.


30. Oenothera missouriensis: Missouri Evening Primrose.
This showy flower is not a primrose, and it opens in the morning, fading in the hot New Mexico afternoons. It is growing among:

31: Stipa tennuissima: Thread grass.

And here is another false primrose:

31: Oenothera albicaulus: Prairie Evening Primrose. On the blooms in silhouette, you can see the very inferior ovary (way below the calyx) these plants have. This one does seem to open in the evening, after the heat of the day.

Last, we have a non-native ornamental, growing in front of the native Opuntia (Cholla), that was counted last summer on Ragamuffin studies.

32: Aloe aristatus: One of approximately 500 different aloes, this one hales from somewhere in the Pacific regions.








If I am ever going to identify up to 100, I think I need to look at animals as well!

Memorial Day: Freedom is Not Free

The sun has returned today, after three days of clouds and rain.

So today, as we go about our picnics and barbeques, shopping and summer fun,

we will pass by Old Glory, flying in breeze outside Ragamuffin house,

and take a moment to remember those

who gave their lives in battles on American soil, and in foreign lands.

Freedom is Not Free

by Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day.

fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,and then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform,

So young, so tall, so proud,

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,

When everything was still

I listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That TAPS had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.

Picture Credits:

Soldier Salutes Flag in Iraq, Baristanet

Bugler at Memorial Service, Vietnam: Army Quartermaster Museum

Expendable: The Moral Bankruptcy of Appeasing Evil

This week has brought some news out of Iran that ought to concern us all, but especially concerns Israel. Iran has tested an intercontinental rocket capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. The Jerusalem Post reports it here. And in another story, the same paper reports that prior to Bibi's visit to Washington, President Obama sent CIA head Panetta to Jerusalem specifically to warn Israel against a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear program. And then Obama used Bibi's visit to announce that he would continue his policy of talking to I'manutjob . . . er, Achmadinajad for six months, and when if that doesn't work, he'll convince the UN to strengthen sanctions against Iran. By then, it may well be too late for Tel Aviv.


Evidently, Obama has been reading his Ghandi:

"The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah (sic) had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the god fearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep."

--Mahatma Ghandi, 20 Nov. 1938

The moral bankruptcy of this statement is self-evident. To Ghandi, the lives of others are expendable, a sacrifice to his ideal world where evil is not to be resisted. Thus, to him, those who would fight to protect their lives and those of their innocent children have the obligation to lay down their arms and submit to terror and death or be considered less moral than the murderers, who apparantly are doing G-d's work by murdering Jews. This is the most profoundly immoral statement I have ever read.

And President Obama? Certainly he has no obligation to come to the rescue of Israel if there is no threat to the United States. And if this is the case, then as President, he should state this clearly. However, he has a lot of damn gall insisting that Israel must not defend her own people against a clearly defined threat to their very existence. I'manutjob has clearly stated his goal to wipe Israel off the face of the earth numerous times. He is a religious fanatic who wants to bring the Caliphate on Earth through the 12th Iman.

Evidently, Obama's moral bankruptcy extends to the sacrifice of the lives of 5 million Jews in order to preserve his fantasy that evil can be negotiated with rather than confronted. It is easy to let others be first in line to face evil in faith, with no resistance, even to death by fire, while hiding behind one's own self-righteousness.

It is a fine thing for President Obama to lecture Bibi Netanyahu, making moral equivalencies, as the world turns inevitably toward nuclear war at the hands of a madman and tyrant. To take a page from the Other Testament: "They cry peace, peace when there is no peace."

Israel's population, which comprises nearly half of the Jews left in the entire world, is on the front lines. And clearly, just as in they were in Europe, they are expendable.

The Wrong Side of a Do-Gooding Law

It is interesting to see what strange bedfellows the current rush of the federal government toward fascism* is creating. Yes, fascism. I am tired of self-censoring, and I think it's about time to call a spade an F'ing shovel.

*Fascism is here defined as the control of capital and those who manage it by the government, through the use of central planning, although the actual companies remain nominally in private hands.

In the past few weeks, I have been thinking about how those of us who oppose any part of President Obama's* monster government have been cast. I have seen it in the comments to this blog. The progressive bloggers and the lefties have consistently labeled concerned citizens as partisan, and have cast all arguments into the major party straightjackets. Obama's minions are every bit as eager to use the "if you're not for us, you're against us" cannard as were G.W.'s hacks.

*Yes, I am aware that Obama "inherited" Mr. Bush's monster government and trashed economy, but Obama has set out to grow government even bigger much faster, and he is trashing the dollar at an even more alarming rate. This is now his government, and two branches are controlled by one party. They cannot excuse their behavior by blaming the previous administration forever. And for the record, I was just as opposed to Bush's big government as I am to Obama's mongo-sized one.

Consider this statement from comments to my blog, by way of example.
About the Tea Party:
"In this case, it was instigated and coordinated by right-wing lobbyists, the Republican Party and Fox News as well as the rest of the conservative media as a means of bashing Obama and rallying support to an otherwise floundering GOP."

If you disagree with any part of the Vision of the Annointed, not only are you "seen as being in error, but in sin" (as Sowell writes in The Vision of the Annointed, p. 3), and further, you are seen as being unable to think for yourself, and told that you are being manipulated; the Annointed worry about you, concerned that you might "get mixed up with these people." But actually, their whole purpose is to paint those who disagree as partisan and manipulated, so that discussion never rises to any meaningful level where opposing views are seen as equally sincere. As Sowell says about the level of argument:

"What is remarkable is how few arguments are really engaged in, and how many substitutes for arguments there are . . . Many of these so called "thinking people" (EHL: the Annointed) could be more accurately characterized as articulate people, as people whose verbal nimbleness can elude both evidence and logic." (p. 5-6).

So what happens as more and more people run afoul of the maze of contradictory regulations and limitations to our liberty imposed by the well-meaning Nanny State?

This month, I opened my copy of Reason Magazine to read about some at least slightly granola DIY'ers who have run afoul of the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), the purported purpose of which is to protect our kids from lead-laced toys from China. Like many recent regulations however, the law actually has the result of destroying of American-based small toymaker's businesses because of the onerous and expensive testing requirements. (For much, much more about CPSIA link through here and here). Need I say that these American small businesses, run by crunchy capitalists, have never marketed products containing lead?

The DIY'ers, who believed that the harm the regulations would do to their businesses was an oversight by Congress, formed organizations, like the Handmade Toy Alliance (the second "here" in the paragraph above), to get the law amended. And they found out that the party they usually supported was not on their side. Consider the hipster mom and home-based businesswoman Cecilia Leibovitz:

"Before the legislation," says Leibovitz, “I’d never really gotten involved politically. I’ve just tried to work in my own life.” But a lot of what she thought she knew about the political process turned out to be wrong. She was discouraged to discover how little power citizens, and even individual lawmakers, have over legislation. Consumer safety groups, she says, ended up getting exactly what they wanted.
“I’ve been supportive of some of these groups,” she says. “I actually blogged about this safety issue in 2007, thinking we were just focusing on problem products. I didn’t realize how massive the law would be and how many products it would cover.” " (Reason Magazine, June 2009, p. 44)

And she discovered something else:

"“What it looks like is that our needs are largely being responded to by Republicans. Most of the people in the Homemade Toy Alliance are probably more aligned with the Democratic side. And people in the Homemade Toy Alliance kind of like the things that these consumer groups are touting, like safer products and natural things.” But now she finds herself in this “weird alliance.” " (ibid).

Leibovitz is still seeing this as a partisan issue, and it's hard for her not to, because Congress has very few members who are not allied with the major parties. But this is really an issue about the power of government, and like many of us before her, her awakening is beginning as she understands that the Congress is more concerned about the big lobby groups and multinational corporations that they represent, than they are about her freedom and prosperity.

To add insult to injury, as children's toys and clothes are being pulled from thrift-store shelves, and are even destroyed, and children's books are being targeted, the political activities of these small business owners is being cast into the standard partisan rhetoric by the progressive media. The very real concerns of opponents to this very bad piece of legislation have been labeled as "alarmist" and the people themselves have been called "conspiracy theorists" and "fear-mongers" by such progressive media as the New York Times.

As Jennifer Grinnell of LivingPlaything.com posted:

". . .The sad fact about larger public discussions in the US these days is how politicized almost every subject has become. In an ‘us’ and ‘them’ environment, we seem to have lost [sight] of the fact that perhaps we, the citizens who find fault with this law, actually have a legitimate point and are not trying to advance an ideology or nefarious political agenda.” (As quoted in Reason Magazine, June 2009, p. 47).

Their sense of betrayal towards their government, and their awakening understanding that their concerns are being cast as a "nefarious political agenda" is well understood by many of us who have trod the same road in years past, awakened by other issues. I was a more than slightly crunchy mom, and my awakening and return to my libertarian roots (second generation and proud of it!) was catalized by 9-11 and home education. As I began to realize that Annointed statists and do-gooders wanted to control what I teach my children, and how I raise them, I understood that all that stands between me and absolute tyranny is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And unless I am willing to trust my fellow citizens of all beliefs and walks of life to manage their own lives, I will not have the freedom to manage mine.

The rhetoric of the Obamaniacs is wearing thin. The tea parties, the 9-12 movement, and patriot groups springing up everywhere understand that this is not about partisan politics, and take no regard of what the vaunted Fourth Estate is saying to itself. (No wonder they aren't making any money). As the toymakers will find out, the Republican party is as morally bankrupt as are the Democrats. They are, with very few exceptions, self-aggrandizing statists whose whole agenda is power and privilege. And they have bought the "opinion makers" with the bread and circuses inside the beltway.

Out here in "flyover country", we don't want to be ruled by the Annointed. And we are tired of paying for their folly.